Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Seed Saving
Seed Saving
First published 2002 ISBN 0-9579683-1-2 C Rosemary Morrow and Susan Girard, 2002 Mountain Wildfire Press, Lot 23, Explorers Road, Katoomba, 2780 Australia All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without permission of the publisher and rights will be freely given to non-profit uses of material from the book.
OUR HOPES
That you understand the importance of seedsaving for yourselves, your children and your society and that you save seed and share it with others.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There is a Vietnamese saying `no one can do anything on their own. That has been established many times in our lives, and again in making this book. There has been the balanced and happy co-operation with Sue, the translation and interpretation by Phuong, and the ideas from Kosal Neary who learned from Jude and Michel Fanton of Seedsavers. Margot Turner
and Tom Sizer read the draft and their comments improved it. Jude Fanton and Nancy Bubel gave permission for their tables to be used. Liz Connor did the final valuable`look good edit. the above address. Copies can be bought from the author at
Cover design by Susan Girard Printed on 80% recycled waste fibre - Renew
Contents
Introduction Background to seed saving Pollination and making seed Keeping the varieties pure Choosing the plants to save Choosing the plant material Collecting the seed Cleaning, testing and drying seed Recording your collected seed Storing and keeping seed Germination tests What happens at the seed bank Distributing seed for field testing
Page No
Tables
I II III IV Ease of saving seed Storage time and no. seeds to gram Days to emergence & temperature Seed sharing circle 13 20/21 25 29
Illustrations
Opposite page
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Importance of home seed saving Technical problems of international seed Cost of company seed Cross pollination Keeping varieties pure Selecting for good traits The seed growing cycle Steps in seed saving Collecting seed
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 22 23 27 28
10. Cleaning and drying seed 11. Testing for living seed 12. Recording collected seed 13. Checklist for good seed keeping 14. Storing seeds 15. Stages of germination 16. Germination tests 17. Seed growers records 18. Seed distribution
INTRODUCTION
To save seed and have a seed bank is a new idea for many people. In many countries people have worked in agriculture and gardening for years yet they lack the techniques, skills and knowledge for keeping seed. People lose the seed, the tried and true varieties and their long time heritage.
In the future the seed will be saved and good quality maintained through local selection, seedsaving and seedbanks by the people trained in techniques of caring for their seed. They will need books for seed saving records and other equipment for storage. Seedsaving is easy to learn and to practice and it does not need much equipment. This book will show you how to do it.
This book was developed from a seedsaving course trialled in Viet Nam (2001) in two districts of Thanh Hoa Province with men and women district agricultural advisers. Corrections have been made according to the experiences of those courses and the participants suggestions. This manuscript is presently being translated into Vietnamese and Khmer. of translation was something we considered while writing this book. Ease
BACKGROUND TO SEEDSAVING
Why saving seed is important
Many farm and garden crop varieties have not yet been systematically collected, described and discussed. Much seed is simply exchanged and passed among friends and not sold on the market. So the World Conference in 1991 suggested that NGOs set up schemes to gather, record and conserve plant genetic resources. World plant seeds and genes have been lost through: Neglect War Disasters fire, floods, earthquakes, tsunami, drought etc Plantations New farming methods Government or companies encouraging people to change to new species
Seed saving means collecting your own seeds: to grow the seed well, to protect the seed from going bad to keep it for a long time if desired to save money usually spent on buying seed to have your own choice of varieties to save the traditional, heritage varieties to keep seed that is good for different conditions e.g. drought, flood, disease etc.
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to breed some new varieties to choose local growing areas and times to plant to share seed or swap with neighbours to select for local qualities e.g. high yielding, low compact plants to have very good quality seed to have seed at home for next seasons planting.
In rural areas most people grow vegetables all the time and often many kinds. However while some people save seed, some cannot and some buy seed, often hybrid, in the market. People who save seed dont buy it in the market; they save money and can grow vegetables all year, collecting the seed and keeping it well for growing next year. Saved seed can be kept at home, swapped with friends or it can be sent to a seedbank.
Seed as a Commodity. Some seeds, called hybrids, will not grow well unless the farmers buy Seed + Fertilizer + Insecticide. If they do not buy all these, then the plants will not grow well and farmers can lose the crop. And if the seed fails because of drought, cyclone or flood, then farmers go into debt because they had to borrow to buy all of the seed companys products.
Terminator Genes. The big international seed companies want farmers to buy new seed from them every year. So they alter the plant seed genes so the crops will not grow viable seed. These seeds produce sterile seeds in the next generation. The next generation will not grow at all .
Unsuitable Seeds. Companies sell seeds that are grown far from where farmers live. So, seed developed and grown in a dry area is now being grown in a wet area and does not give good harvests.
Seed quality. This deteriorates when seed is too old, diseased, has low germination rates or it is not true to the original seed.
Number of varieties.
of varieties, which are high yielding but have lost good genes for such qualities as disease resistance, tolerance of drought or flood, good flavour and nutrition.
through wind, water and movement. Beans and pea are pollinated before the flowers open. Cross-pollination occurs when male and female parts are: separate flowers on the same plant e.g. cucumber, corn, watermelon, eggplant, gourd; or separate flowers on different plants e.g. papaya, carrot, parsley, celery. The pollen is carried by wind, bees, flies, wasps etc. Hand pollination is when people help pollination. For example, with corn, a paper bag is placed over the male flower for one hour or more then it is taken off and placed over the female flower and left for two or three days, then removed. paperbag has fertilised the female flower. The male pollen in the
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Usually you select for no more than three of these. When you select the best plant for the reasons you have chosen, tie a coloured ribbon around it to remind yourself not to eat or pick the flowers, fruits or roots.
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A good-sized plant can also be divided to make new plants e.g. lemongrass 1. Good Stem Cuttings 2. It is a good straight stem and strong It has no disease, insect attack or eggs on it It has at least one bud on the stem
Good Fruits and Roots It is a good sized fruit or root It is ripe or over-ripe It has no diseases, insect attack or eggs on it
3.
Good Seeds It is a good sized seed It has no insect attack or eggs on it For small seeds in pods, collect a branch or whole plant with good seedpods
If you are not sure what fruits and vegetables to save then start with the simple ones. See Table 1 Ease of Saving.
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FOR EXPERIENCED SAVERS Amaranth Artichoke Bitter Gourd Borage Cape Gooseberry Capsicum & Chilli Celtuce Chervil Chives Cowpea Gourd Gramma Jerusalem Artichoke* Korila Marjoram Mint NZ Spinach Pansy/Violets Peruvian Parsnip* Poppy Qld Arrowroot* Rhubarb Rosemary Runner Bean Soya Bean Spring Onion Taro* Thyme Watermelon Wax Gourd FOR MORE ACCOMPLISHED SAVERS Beetroot Cabbage Celeriac Collard Eggplant Endive Kohlrabi Mustard Onion Orach Rockmelon Silverbeet Water Chestnut* Water Spinach FOR EXPERT SAVERS Brussels Sprouts
*
Asparagus Broccoli Carrot Chicory Dandelion Hibiscus Spinach Leek Mitsuba Parsley Potato* Rocket Salsify Squash Tree Onion* Winged Bean
Basella Calendula Celery Chinese Cabbage Ginger* Hyacinth Bean Luffa Mizuna Peanut Pumpkin Rosella Sorrel Sunflower Tumeric* Yam Bean
Corn
Turnip
These plants are grown from roots, tubers or whole fruits, or by division, rather than from seed and includes choko and water chestnuts. They cannot be stored. ________________________________________________________________________ From Michel and Jude Fanton, The Seed Savers Handbook, p. 51
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Seeds must be quite dry before they are stored or they can rot from
fungus, attract pests, or get diseases from virus or bacteria. So it is important to dry the seed very well but not so dry as to kill it.
Dry seedcoats e.g. Herbs, and vegetables with roots, amaranth, lettuce,
cabbage, Chinese cabbage, carrot, Pick the whole plant i.e. harvest the seed on whole plant Hang it up in the shade - for one or two weeks in dry season, three to four weeks in the wet season - until seed and stem are quite dry Take seed and clean it Dry in the sun from 7.00 to 9.00 am then move and dry in shade Do this every day until the seed is dry.
2.
Dry fruits and vegetables e.g. Bitter gourd, luffa, pumpkin, beans, chili,
eggplant etc. Take the seeds out of the fruit and clean it some need rubbing, crushing, winnowing, luffa and beans dont need to be cleaned Place in glass of water and let settle Select heavy seed from the bottom of the glass and dry as in 1.
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3.
Fruit with a high water content e.g. Cucumber family, and tomato.
Cut the fruit, take out the seed, and put pulp in a glass of water for one day in the dry season and two days in the wet season. Then stir all the pulp in the glass, let it settle Discard floating seeds etc and keep the seeds from the bottom Wash them in clean water and dry as in 1.
You may want to do a formal Viability (Living) Test, especially if you are planning to distribute your seeds. Method: Take 100 fairly large seeds. (Very small seeds float anyway) Place them in a glass of water and stir gently. Wait 5 minutes to see which drop to the bottom Take out these living seeds and dry them again. Count these seeds. The number gives you the viability %
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Address of sender Name of seed and special type Details of the seed e.g. can grow in dry season Date of collection
On the envelope you have placed the seed in, write the same details. Store in a cool dry place.
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water bottles and jars plastic box with lid paper bags inside airtight clear glass bottles plastic bags cotton bags- inside airtight clear glass bottles
The seed is stored in plastic or paper bags* inside glass jars or bottles that are airtight. This is very important because with no air, any insects will die and fungi, virus and bacteria have trouble surviving.
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People without a refrigerator can take seed and put it in a jar or plastic bag, exclude air very carefully and the insects will die.
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FOR BEGINNERS Basil Broad Beans Coriander Fennel Lettuce Nasturtium Pea Salad Burnet Tomato
5 4 3 5 3 3 3 4
600 1 90 1000 30 5 150 400 800 50 12 270 400 1000 1000 600 600 1000 5 4 400 12,000 500 20 200 10,000 250 70 1 1000 250 10-20 6 18
Beans Chilacayote Dill Garlic Chives Marigold Okra Sage Snake Bean Water Cress Artichoke Basella Borage Calendula Capsicum & Chilli Celery Chervil Chinese Cabbage Cowpea Gourd Hibiscua Spinach Korila Luffa Mint Mizuna Pansy/Violets Peanut Pumpkin Rocket Rosemary Salsify Soya Bean Squash Thyme Wax Gourd Yam Bean
5-10 5-8 900 250 300 15 250 5 4000 30 50 65 100 150 500 450 350 50 30 70 30 20 40,000 600 1-2000 12 4 500 900 100 5-10 6-8 6000 10 5
FOR EXPERIENCED SAVERS Amaranth 5 Asparagus 3-5 Bitter Gourd 5 Broccoli 5 Cape Gooseberry 3 Carrot 3 Celtuce 5 Chicory 8 Chives 1 Dandelion 2 Gramma 3-8 Hyacinth Bean 4 Leek 3 Marjoram 5 Mitsuba 3 NZ Spinach 6 Parsley 3 Poppy 2 Rhubarb 1 Rosella 3 Runner Bean 3 Sorrel 2 Spring Onion 2 Sunflower 3 Watermelon 5 Winged Bean 2
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FOR MORE ACCOMPLISHED SAVERS Beetroot 5 50 Cardoon 4 25 Celeriac 5 2000 Corn Salad 4 700 Eggplant 5 200 Guada Bean 2 6 Kohlrabi 4 250 Mustard Greens 4 600 Orach 5 250 Radish 3-10 4 Silverbeet 10 60-90 Water Spinach 3 150
Cabbage Cauliflower Collard Cucumber Endive Kale Mustard Onion Parsnip Rockmelon Spinach
4 4 4 4-10 5 4 3-7 2 1 5 5
FOR EXPERT SAVERS Brussels Sprouts 4 250 Corn* 2-10 3-8 Turnip 5 300 *Corn is easy to store but difficult to ensure the pure seed to get the true variety ____________________________________________________________________ ___ From Michel and Jude Fanton, The Seed Savers Handbook, Appendix A, pp.165-7
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GERMINATION TESTS
A germination test is carried out to find out what percentage of seeds will grow. You can do a germination test on your own seed or on some given to you or on commercial seed. At the seed bank germination tests are always done. At home you generally do the germination test before you plant the seed.
Preparation
Use 100 seeds when you have a large number. Use all seeds when you have less than 100. You must take a good sample of the seeds. Dont take all the big ones or strong ones. You must have a mix of all the seed.
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2.
Prepare a box or container for germination Place fine sandy soil for the bottom layer Then some sandy soil + ordinary soil + compost in middle layer Then ordinary soil mixed with compost for the top layer Place the seeds on the top in 10 x 10 rows and cover with sand Water lightly but well Make a label identifying the seed and put it in the box.
3.
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% Results
1 2 3 4
______________________________________________________
Results of Monitoring
1. > 50% is good quality may give to others 2. 30-50% is not very good quality can give to others but give a lot 3. < 30% is poor quality do not distribute to others. NB. Cucurbits dont have as high a germination % as high as others.
1
A Vigour Test is when the seed is planted in soil and compost and watered. The strength of the seedling is recorded. (Thanks for Jude Fanton personal communication)
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0
x x x x x x x x x x x x 49 x 136 x 172 x x 63 x x x
5
x x x 42 x x 51 x 41 x x x 15 x 31 x 57 36 29 23 x x x
10
53 x x 17 15 x 17 20 16 22 x x 7 x 13 29 27 14 11 12 43 5 x
15
24 31 16 10 9 25 10 10 12 12 13 x 4 27 7 17 19 10 6 7 14 3 x
20
15 18 11 6 6 13 7 6 7 7 6 13 3 17 5 14 14 8 4 6 8 2 12
25
10 7 8 5 5 8 6 5 x 4 4 8 2 13 4 13 15 6 4 5 6 1 5
30
12 8 6 4 4 8 6 5 x 4 3 5 3 7 4 12 32 6 3 6 6 1 4
35
19 x 6 5 x 9 8 x x 3 3 x x 6 13 x x x x x 9 1 3
40oC
20 x x x x x x x x x x x x 7 x x x x x x x 3 x
Table from Nancy Bubel, The New Seed starters Handbook, p.33.
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Code number for the seed variety all plants have a seedbank code Senders name and address Date of receiving the seed
The seed bank does a germination test (see earlier) and records date of germination test and percentage germination in book or on computer
The seed is placed into small bags for distributing to special seed growers to grow larger amounts (see p. 28) or
THE SEED BANK RECEIVES, TESTS, CIRCULATES SEED AND KEEPS INFORMATION ON IT.
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Records for distributing seeds to growers Record Page for Distributing Seed
No. Seeds Date Sent Recd Name of Vegetable Sent by Grown by Place Grown Germination % Date
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Village - Neighbourhood Has problems with seed Finds some good seed Wants local seed Has interested farmers and growers Needs more information about seed
District Seedsellers Seedbuyers Agriculture staff Market Information in/out about seeds Send seed in/receive seed from seedbank Are worried about company seed
People Growing the Seed Farmers Seedgrowers Information in/out about seed quality Yield information
Seedbank Collects the seeds Records the seed Stores and keeps the seed Germinates the seed and grows it Distributes seed Collects information about the seed
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Biographical notes in this happy collaboration, Susan Girard is a suburban farmer with a highly productive and well-designed garden. She is a nurse born again as a permaculturist. She is also an artist who has refound her talents. Susan supports and is supported by her four children and permaculturist husband, Kevin.
Rosemary Morrow is an agriculturist turned permaculturist who has two permaculture books previously published. She also writes autobiographical pieces and her work is divided between work in the Blue Mountains in Australia and with the people of Viet Nam and Cambodia with stints in Albania and Indonesia.
The New Seed-Starters Handbook, Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pennsylvania, 1988 The Seed Savers Handbook, The Seed Savers Network, Byron Bay, Australia, 1993
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